Ad Writing, Austin & Alchemy

February 8, 2010

So, how was it for you? Did you like the new e-trade baby? Did it make you want to login into e-trade?

Want to go test drive a Hyundai this morning? Eat Doritos? Or did Pepsi have the right idea for the wisest use of their Super Bowl money?

I’m more curious still – in my small market in Missouri – how the local guys who spent $7,000 for :30 plan to see a return and justify dropping that kind of cash on one ad that could buy me, for example, around 600 :60 radio ads and a bag of Doritos.

What makes people do the things they do? Are those influences and influencers changing?

Is it time for your business to change, too? Come to Austin in a couple weeks. From Roy H. Williams’ Monday Morning Memo in my inbox this morning:

Every business owner is on the inside, looking out, and what they see is entirely different from what their customers see. Customers are on the outside, looking in.

Great ad writers remain on the outside, looking in. They are advocates, not of the business owner, but of the business owner’s customer. This gives them their great advantage.

Do you have the courage to learn what your company looks like from the outside, looking in? Would you like to know what your customer is thinking?

Twice a year I gather my Wizard of Ads partners from around the world for 2 days of continuing education in Austin, Texas. This year we’re looking for 7 business owners willing to be guinea pigs for us on February 25, the second day of class. These selected business owners will be responsible for their own airfare and accommodations. Since this is not a Wizard Academy event, we can’t offer you a room in Engelbrecht House. Sorry.

In return for your investment of time, travel costs and courage, you’ll receive 1 hour of focused attention from the brightest ad consultants on earth.

If you own a business and are interested, email PaulBoomer [at] WizardOfAds [dot] com or call Paul Boomer at (573) 268-4109.  Please, no advertising professionals.

I hope to see 7 owners of interesting businesses in Austin on February 25.

You should read today’s Memo: How I Win the Ad Wars (Frankly, I Cheat. You Can, Too.) and then I’d email my friend Boomer if I were you. This kind of advice is rare and valuable. I’d hate to think of you missing out because you were watching last night’s TV ads over and over again this morning.

There’s nothing less valuable than last night’s TV ad. It’s over. Done. What are you going to do next?

It is good to be a guinea pig.

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HBO premieres Temple Grandin tomorrow night. It’s the story of an inventor, advocate, and author who made an awful lot of people rethink autism. Her book, Thinking In Pictures, is the first book many parents read when they learn their children have the developmental disorder.

Here’s a fine piece about the production by The Daily Beast writer Jace Lacob. And here’s a clip. It feels about right.

Have a great weekend. I think there’s some kind of football game on TV as well.

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Two Kinds of Compliments

02.04.2010 Work

“Young man, I want to pay you two compliments,” he said – with a wink in his voice before even so much as ‘hello’ in our weekly phone call.

These calls always make me nervous. What if we’re tracking downward? What if the things we’re doing aren’t working? But, you make the call.
You do the hard [...]

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Dear Radio. Please Stop It.

02.03.2010 Work

You probably don’t know Kent Zimmer.
He’s that guy who comes along maybe once every 15-20 years whose world spins at a different speed than yours and mine. With chaos swirling all around him, Kent’s the guy who would look up and notice a pretty butterfly … and make up a song about it and start [...]

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Six More Weeks of Surprise and Delight

02.02.2010 Marketing

That rat Phil saw his shadow this morning. So it goes.
Groundhog Day’s one of those funny traditions here in the states. Is it a holiday? Ain’t it a holiday?
Call it whatever you like … I call it ammunition.

I originally designed this a few years back as a maintenance piece for one of my favorite clients [...]

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Forever: This Week’s Desktop

02.01.2010 Nerdery

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House Money, Four Little Words & The Night Everything Changed

02.01.2010 Family

Yesterday, as I planned my week ahead, I initially chose to write about strategic planning this morning. I owe you parts two through five of a simple way to make strategic planning doable. I was stressed about the week ahead – a monstrous to-do list as our practice and levels of responsibility continue to grow.
Then, [...]

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Good Tuesdays

01.29.2010 Home

Starting Tuesday, D. Rowe’s Restaurant (our client, in the interest of delighted disclosure) is going to start doing something cool. Well, it all started last summer. David and Meghan Rowe donated 5% of their gross revenues on Tuesdays last summer to help Sarah Hill and KOMU-TV send WWII veterans to D.C. to view the war [...]

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A Revised Sales Rep Email to a Customer

01.29.2010 Marketing

A couple days back, I expressed my frustration with an email I got from a sales rep.
A colleague, journalist, and now ivory-towered academic asked in the comments how I might have written that email. He’s the instructor-type, you know.
And, as usual, Joey was right. I sat down and – in about six minutes – wrote [...]

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It Sounds Easy: A Million-Dollar Radio Presentation

01.27.2010 Media

If you work for a radio station, I’m about to offer you a million-dollar idea for free. Please take it and run with my blessings and love for your medium:
Before I was a Partner in Wizard of Ads, I invented a business model that helped my small-market radio company add an additional $1,000,000 in local-direct, [...]

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